A: I worked for a Bain Capital PE spinout previously, which was basically a huge “team liftout” from Bain Capital and Bain & Company, including the head of worldwide HR at Bain Capital and the former chairman of the Bain Capital management committee. They adopted a lot of the same screening, hiring, and training techniques that Bain Capital did, and here is what I encountered in my interviews.

The process was structured over 3 rounds, with the type of people at each step and the kinds of questions asked varying between rounds. It consisted of a heavy combination of case interviews, technical finance questions, modeling tests, and personal fit interviews to test 6 things:

Also be sure to check out our step-by-step Private Equity LBO Modeling Training Videos for walk-through tutorials on how to build an LBO model, navigate Excel with ruthless efficiency, and rapidly create an LBO PowerPoint deck to present to your PE interviewers.

Andrew Chen

Andrew Chen received an associate offer, without any formal LBO experience, on his first attempt at applying for private equity investing positions in the competitive San Francisco Bay Area. He worked for Huntsman Gay Global Capital, the Bain Capital spin-out founded by the industrialist Jon Huntsman, former Bain Capital Chairman Bob Gay, former San Francisco 49ers Superbowl quarterback Steve Young, and including former CFO of Citigroup and American Express Gary Crittenden. Andrew was previously a member of the Corporate Finance & Strategy Practice at McKinsey & Company and holds a J.D. from Harvard Law School. You can follow him on Twitter and Google+.

About

Andrew Chen received an associate offer, without any formal finance training, on his first attempt at applying for private equity investing positions in the competitive San Francisco Bay Area. He worked for Huntsman Gay, the Bain Capital spin-out led by the industrialist Jon Huntsman, former Bain Capital Chairman Bob Gay, former San Francisco 49ers Superbowl quarterback Steve Young, and former CFO of Citigroup and American Express Gary Crittenden. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Google+.